It's Still Life

Reconciling Shadows

Once upon our time,
we turned the grey face of war
into timid rain.
Sent flags falling
while ours rose like the sun.
and
I hoped never
to touch dark horrors again.
Hoped never
to feel steel’s heat, to see
its blood. Its sticky matte.
these are
Curious times, where I
expect the bite of lead
whenever thunder pulls
and splits the air apart.
because
Once upon our darkest times
we swallowed up the world.
For peace, I thought.
We said.
To reconstruct a deconstruct.
but
Our times are curious shadows,
lost on reconciled paths,
and somewhere in my head,
I know I am broken.

 
 
image is from Unsplash, used without restrictions. CC:00. Written for University of Iowa’s Class #6: Whitman’s Civil War: Writing and Imaging Loss, Death, and Disaster – “Reconciliation”